Basil Rathbone - Biography - IMDb Basil Rathbone Biography Showing all 51 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (6) | Trivia (29) | Personal Quotes (4) | Salary (4) Overview (5) Philip St. John Basil Rathbone Nickname 6' 1½" (1.87 m) Mini Bio (1) Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised. Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer born in Liverpool.

From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School, where he was more interested in sports--especially fencing, at which he excelled--than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting. Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in Stratford-on-Avon. Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in 1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military service, as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd Battalion, he worked in intelligence and received the Military Cross for bravery.

In 1919, released from military service, he returned to Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance on Broadway and his film debut in the silent Innocent (1921). For the remainder of the decade Rathbone alternated between the London and New York stages and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway play called "Judas". Soon afterwards he abandoned his first love, the theater, for a film career.

During the 1920s his roles had evolved from the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain (usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including Captain Blood (1935), David Copperfield (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Tower of London (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938). However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as Dr.

Watson, first in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and then in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over the next seven years. Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life, Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows, primarily drama, variety and game shows; in occasional films, such as Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Court Jester (1955), Tales of Terror (1962) and The Comedy of Terrors (1963); and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with which he toured the U.S. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond Spouse (2) Had one son with Ethel Marion Foreman: John Rodion .

Had one daughter with Ouida Bergère : Cynthia Rathbone (1939-1969). Nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar twice, and lost both times to the very same actor, Walter Brennan . Distant cousin of Major Henry Rathbone, who was part of President Abraham Lincoln 's theater party the night Lincoln was assassinated. Major Rathbone himself was stabbed by John Wilkes Booth as the latter was escaping, but the wound was not fatal. Major Rathbone later married Clara Harris, who was also in the Lincoln party, but he murdered her in an insane rage in 1875 and spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. He had suffered from what would now be characterized as a form of PTSD ever since the assassination. Had portrayed the title character on Blue (1939-1942) and Mutual (1943-1946) Radio's "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Following his death, he was interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Cousin of actor/manager Sir Frank R. Benson .

Won Broadway's 1948 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for his performance as Dr. Sloper in the original Broadway production of "The Heiress". The award was shared with Henry Fonda for "Mister Roberts" and Paul Kelly for "Command Decision". Was so frequently typecast as a villain that he literally jumped at the first few opportunities he ever got to play Sherlock Holmes because "for once, I got to beat the bad guy instead of play him". Indeed, he played the legendary heroic detective more than any other character in his career. However, by 1946, he had become so sick of the role that he quit his Sherlock Holmes film series and temporarily returned to the Broadway stage. Over the course of his career, he had played the super sleuth in 16 films and over 200 radio plays. Although he has been immortalized as a screen villain, before he played Murdstone in 1935, he had never played a villain and he was known, both on film and stage, exclusively as a matinée idol and romantic leading man. Fought in the British Army during World War I, and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery under fire.

His final appearance as Sherlock Holmes was in a play written by his wife Ouida Bergère , appropriately titled "Sherlock Holmes". The production opened on Broadway on October 30, 1953, and lasted only three performances. He is considered the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, superior even to on-screen foes Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power . However, because he was so frequently cast as the villain, he won only two on-screen duels in his career - as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936), for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and as Captain Esteban Pascuale against the friar ( Eugene Pallette ), who was so outclassed by "the Capitan" he was harmlessly disarmed in a matter of seconds, in The Mark of Zorro (1940). His last, filmed when the actor was 63, was with Danny Kaye in The Court Jester (1955). It is considered by some the best sword fight ever filmed. He campaigned in vain for the role of Lord Henry Wotton in the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde 's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945).

He believed that his typecasting as Sherlock Holmes cost him the role, and was a contributing factor in his leaving the Universal series. Although earlier in his career, he had quit playing Sherlock Holmes out of disgust at what he thought was typecasting, later in life he began appearing as Holmes on television and in several movies, and even wrote (along with his wife) a play about Holmes, in which he played the character on stage. That this represented a change of heart seems unlikely though, as until his death, he expressed hostility to his identification as Sherlock. It probably can be explained by Rathbone's chronic lack of money and a need to exploit his previous fame. He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard; for Radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Television at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. He never renounced his British citizenship and was a lifelong member of the Conservative party. Was related by marriage to the famous Huxley family.

His wife's niece, Ouida Branch, whom they brought up from an early age, married David Bruce Huxley, the brother of famed writers Aldous Huxley and Julian Huxley and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Andrew Huxley. British Army Fencing Champion. The Sherlock Holmes-esque Basil of Baker Street in The Great Mouse Detective (1986) is named after Rathbone who was perhaps best known for the many times he played Sherlock Holmes. Distant relative of Julian Rathbone . Rathbone was a firm believer in ESP. When he was four, his parents booked passage on a ship taking them from South Africa to Britain. His mother had a dream that the ship would sink in the bay of Biscay and convinced her husband that they she take a later boat. She was proved prescient when the ship did sink with a loss of all hands. He was the favorite choice of Gone with the Wind (1939) author Margaret Mitchell to play the role of Rhett Butler. The Rathbones were a Hollywood exception in that they remained a happily married couple for more than four decades. During their heyday in Hollywood, they were known to host the most lavish epicurean parties.

For many years, they (and their six dogs) lived in a house in the Los Feliz Hills, overlooking Hollywood, which had once been owned by the prizefighter Jack Dempsey and his wife, the actress Estelle Taylor . Is one of 13 actors who have received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a real-life king. The others in chronological order are Charles Laughton for The Private Life of Henry VIII.

(1933), Robert Morley for Marie Antoinette (1938), Laurence Olivier for Henry V (1944) and Richard III (1955), José Ferrer for Joan of Arc (1948), Yul Brynner for The King and I (1956), John Gielgud for Becket (1964), Peter O'Toole for Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968), Robert Shaw for A Man for All Seasons (1966), Richard Burton for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Kenneth Branagh for Henry V (1989), Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness of King George (1994), and Colin Firth for The King's Speech (2010). When WW2 was declared in 1939, he wrote to the British War Office to enlist, he wanted to fight. But he received a letter which explained to him that he was too old to fight. He had a good friend, Jack Miltern, who also loved Rathbone's wife Ouida.

The three of them lived together in a cottage, until Miltern died, killed by a hit and run driver. Personal Quotes (4) When you become the character you portray, it's the end of your career as an actor. Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart. [on how he was awarded his Military Cross] All I did, old man, was disguise myself as a tree - that's correct, a tree - and cross no man's land to gather a bit of information from the German lines. I have not since been called upon to play a tree. [from a private letter written when he was serving in World War I] Out here, we step over death every day. We stand next to it while we drink our tea. It's commonplace and ordinary. People who had lives and tried to hold on to them and didn't, and now slump and stare and melt slowly to nothing. You meet their eyes, or what used to be their eyes and you feel ashamed. And now Johnny is one of them. That's an end of it. Grieving is only ridiculous in this place. It could be me today or tomorrow and I shouldn't want anyone to bother grieving over that.

Salary (4) Basil Rathbone - Actor - YouTube 319 views Last updated on May 21, 2012 Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised by their mother Anna Barbara, a violinist, and their father Edgar Philip, a mining engineer. From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School, where he was more interested in sports than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting. Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in Stratford-on-Avon.

Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in 1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military service, as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd Battalion, he worked in intelligence and received the Military Cross for bravery. In 1919, released from military service, he returned to Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance on Broadway and his film debut in the silent Innocent (1921). For the remainder of the decade Rathbone alternated between the London and New York stages and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway play called "Judas". Soon afterwards he abandoned his first love, the theater, for a film career.

During the 1920s his roles had evolved from the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain (usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including Captain Blood (1935), The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Tower of London (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938). However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with Nigel Bruce as Dr.

Watson, first in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and then in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over the next seven years. Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life, Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows, primarily drama, variety and game shows; in occasional films, such as Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Court Jester (1955), Tales of Terror (1962) and The Comedy of Terrors (1963); and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with which he toured the U.S.

less Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading ... more Play next Play now Basil Rathbone Basil Rathbone Birth Name: Philip St. John Basil Rathbone Born: 13 June 1892 Died: 21 July 1967 Country of origin: View all Basil Rathbone pictures Description: Basil Rathbone (June 13, 1892 - July 21, 1967) was an English actor. He was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg, South Africa, a son of Edgar Philip Rathbone and Anna Barbara George. His younger sister and brother were Beatrice Rathbone and John Rathbone. During the 1920s, Rathbone appeared in Shakespearean roles on the British stage. He was in a few silent movies, and played detective Philo Vance in the 1929 movie The Bishop Murder Case.

Rathbone became famous for playing suave villains in many swashbucklers of the 1930s, including David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1 Basil Rathbone (June 13, 1892 - July 21, 1967) was an English actor. He was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg, South Africa, a son of Edgar Philip Rathbone and Anna Barbara George. His younger sister and brother were Beatrice Rathbone and John Rathbone. During the 1920s, Rathbone appeared in Shakespearean roles on the British stage. He was in a few silent movies, and played detective Philo Vance in the 1929 movie The Bishop Murder Case.

Rathbone became famous for playing suave villains in many swashbucklers of the 1930s, including David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), Captain Blood (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Mark of Zorro (1940). He was most notable for his starring roles in fifteen Sherlock Holmes movies. To many fans, Basil Rathbone was born to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous London detective. He also starred as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson in an old-time radio mystery series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1943-1946), and did numerous other radio broadcasts. Rathbone was married to actress Marion Foreman (married 1914-divorced 1926) and writer Ouida Bergere (married 1927-his death 1967). He and Foreman had one son, Rodion Rathbone, and he and Bergere had one adopted daughter, Cynthia Rathbone.

He was admired for his athletic cinema swordsmanship, particularly as Sir Guy of Guisborne in the long fight scene in Robin Hood. Other noteworthy sword fights appear in The Mark of Zorro and The Court Jester (1955). The latter duplicates a scene in the former where Rathbone slices a candle in two and leaves it burning. Basil Rathbone earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and another nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938). It was in 1939 that Rathbone first starred as Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Unfortunately, the many sequels typecast him and he was unable to break out of the stereotype, except in certain spoofs of his earlier swashbuckling villains in such movies as Casanova's Big Night (1954) and The Court Jester (1956). Rathbone also acted on Broadway numerous times. In 1948, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play for his performance of Dr.

Austin Sloper in the original production of The Heiress. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he continued to appear in several anthology programs on television He died of a heart attack at his home in New York City. He is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York. Basil Rathbone has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for motion pictures at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard; one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard; and one for television at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. ... ( more ) ( less ) Basil Rathbone - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 2:03 PM, UTC NEWS Actor | Soundtrack | Miscellaneous Crew Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice ...

See full bio » Born: a list of 39 people created 07 Jul 2012 a list of 23 images created 17 Sep 2013 a list of 30 people created 18 Apr 2015 a list of 35 images created 5 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Basil Rathbone's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins. See more awards » Known For The Adventures of Robin Hood Sir Guy of Gisbourne (1938) 1967 Soldier in Love (TV Movie) The Duke of York 1966 Summer Fun (TV Series) Governor 1965 Dr. Kildare (TV Series) Frederick Foray 1965 Burke's Law (TV Series) Milo James - Who Killed Hamlet? (1965) ...

Milo James 1964 Suspense (TV Series) 1956-1957 Kraft Theatre (TV Series) General Zomback 1957 The Lark (TV Movie) Chief Inquisitor 1956 Screen Directors Playhouse (TV Series) Paul Charters 1955 Star Tonight (TV Series) Narrator 1955 Science Fiction Theatre (TV Series) Dr. Victor Berenson 1954 Schlitz Playhouse (TV Series) The Jewel Thief 1954 Texaco Star Theatre (TV Series) Sherlock Holmes 1953 Season's Greetings (TV Movie) 1953 Danger (TV Series) 1951-1953 Lux Video Theatre (TV Series) Ambrose Wallington / Sir Paul Maxim / Frampton 1951 Lights Out (TV Series) Gregory 1956 The Alcoa Hour (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - The Stingiest Man in Town (1956) ...

(performer: "Humbug", "I Wear A Chain", "Spirit Theme", "The Christmas Spirit", "One Little Boy", "I Wear A Chain', "Mankind Should Be My Business") 1946 Dressed to Kill (performer: "The Swagman", "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)" - uncredited) 1943 Above Suspicion (performer: "Untitled Oxford University Song" - uncredited) 1939 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (performer: "I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside" - uncredited) 1937 Confession (performer: "Sonata in A, K.331" (1783?), "Mazurka" (1935) - uncredited) 1937 A Night of Terror ("In the Hall of the Mountain King", uncredited) 1930 A Notorious Affair ("Second Movement: Andante" (1844), uncredited) / (performer: "Second Movement: Andante" (1844) - uncredited) 1930 The Bishop Murder Case (performer: "W

altz of the Flowers" (1891-2), "Waltz in A Minor, Op.34, No.2 ('Waltz Brilliante')" (1831-39) - uncredited) Hide Basil Rathbone, Master of Stage and Screen: Biography 1892�1967 Growing Up Philip St.

John Basil Rathbone's life began on June 13, 1892, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1895 his family had to flee to escape the Boers because Rathbone's father was accused of being a British spy. In his autobiography Rathbone admits that he didn't know whether or not his father really was a spy--he had never asked his father! What is known is that his father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer, and his mother, Anna Barbara Rathbone, a violinist. Basil was the eldest of three children. He had a younger sister Beatrice and a younger brother John. Basil Rathbone, age 2 Basil with his sister Beatrice and brother John Rathbone grew up in England and attended the Repton School* from 1906 to 1910. More interested in sports than studying, Rathbone (called "Ratters" by his friends) excelled in sports. While at school, he developed a love of the theater. When he left school, he told his father he wanted to make the theater his profession.

His father persuaded him to agree to work for one year at an insurance company (and hoped that Rathbone would forget about the theater.) After the obligatory year, Rathbone visited his cousin Frank Benson, an accomplished actor and manager of his own company. Cousin Frank gave him a job, but did not bestow favors upon him. Rathbone had to learn acting and earn the good parts. Rathbone started acting in the No. 2 company, but by 1913 he had been promoted to the #1 company and was playing all the juvenile leads. *To learn more about Repton School, visit . Marriage While acting in various Shakespeare plays with Frank Benson's company, Rathbone met and fell in love with a fellow performer, Marion Foreman. He wrote, "Marion Foreman had been on the stage for some time before I met her at Stratford on Avon in August 1913. She was an excellent actress with a beautiful speaking and singing voice. We were cast opposite one another in 'second leads,' such as Lorenzo and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, and Silvius and Phoebe in As You Like It.

Both on and off the stage we saw much of each other for many months" (In and Out of Character, pages 16-17). Basil and Marion were married in October of 1914, and the following July their son Rodion was born. Early in 1916 Rathbone left the stage to join World War I. He last saw his mother when he said goodbye to her at Victoria Station. She died in 1917. World War I Rathbone served Great Britain with distinction as a lieutenant, an intelligence officer, with the Liverpool Scottish, second battalion in World War I. Basil's younger brother John, a captain in the Dorset regiment, died in that war. In an interview with Edward R. Murrow in 1957, Rathbone related the story of how he disguised himself as a tree to get near the enemy camp to obtain information. "I went to my commanding officer and I said that I thought we'd get a great deal more information from the enemy if we didn't fool around in the dark so much . . . and I asked him whether I could go out in daylight. I think he thought we were a little crazy. . . .

I said we'd go out camouflaged -- made up as trees -- with branches sticking out of our heads and arms . . . . We brought back an awful lot of information, and a few prisoners, too." Basil Rathbone received the British Military Cross for outstanding bravery. To learn more about Rathbone's experiences in World War I, click here . Rathbone's service to Britain and his brother's sacrifice contributed to his decision later on in his life to remain a British subject even though he had been living in the United States for many years. Early Career After his return from the war, Rathbone's theatre career picked up and he performed in Stratford on Avon, and in London. His marriage, however, broke up. Rathbone chose not to reveal why this happened--it just did. He left Marion and his son Rodion, and set up house on his own. Although he was not making much money, Rathbone struggled to pay for two households. He did not want his wife and son to suffer financially because of his decision to leave them. During this time Rathbone wrestled with a sense of guilt with regard to his son.

He writes: "Self-condemnation fought bitterly with self- justification, and there was no one to turn to and talk with about such intimate personal matters. ... my son was missing his father." (In and Out of Character, page 17) Henry Daniell (who later played Moriarty in The Woman in Green , one of the Sherlock Holmes films) was a fellow actor at that time. Rathbone acted in many Shakespeare plays then, and loved many different women. New York The next phase of Basil Rathbone's career began in 1923, when he came to New York City to perform in The Swan. In November of that year, Rathbone met Ouida Bergere, a scriptwriter. They fell in love and made plans to marry. Before that could happen, however, Rathbone needed to get a divorce from Marion Foreman. They had separated in 1919, but had not divorced. In a 1940 interview for True Story magazine, Rathbone explained, �I came from an old-school family which did not believe in divorce. � When a Rathbone married, he stayed married, regardless of the circumstances. They had barely forgiven me for taking up acting as a profession.

I knew all too well what their reaction to a divorce would be.� He traveled back to England for that purpose, and also saw his father for the last time. Rathbone's father died on June 13, 1924. Basil and Ouida were married on April 18, 1926, in New York. Their marriage was by most accounts a very happy one, and lasted until Rathbone's death in 1967. They shared a love of reading books and watching boxing. Both of them thought that Sugar Ray Robinson was wonderful. Basil was also a baseball fan and an enthusiastic golfer. Although he tried, Rathbone never succeeded in getting Ouida interested in golf. The Rathbones also shared a love of dogs. Pictured to the right is Basil with his favorite dog Moritz. In his biography of Basil Rathbone, Michael Druxman relates an amusing story about Moritz: "One evening, Rathbone was walking with the dog along New York's 46th street, when Moritz, unable to find a lamp post, decided to relieve himself on the leg of a woman pedestrian.

Basil, red-faced and at a loss for words, could barely sputter out an apology. Luckily, the woman was so impressed at meeting Basil Rathbone, that she told him to forget the whole matter and went on her way." (Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films, page 25-26) From Theater to Films During the 1920s most of Basil Rathbone's work was in the theater. Many of his Broadway roles were that of the suave, sophisticated seducer of women--so different from the Baker Street detective he played later in his career! One of these plays, The Captive, caused Rathbone to be arrested. Rathbone was cast in the role of Jacques, a young man engaged to be married. In the play Jacques discovers that his fianc�e is in love with someone else--a woman! Since homosexuality was such a controversial topic during the 1920s, the entire cast was charged with offending public morals, and the play was closed. The charges were eventually dropped, but Rathbone was very angry about the censorship.

He and many others involved with the play felt that "The Captive" was a great play, which addressed an issue important to society, something people needed to know about. Rathbone made eight films during the 1920s. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney was a great success in 1929 and made film producers sit up and take notice of Rathbone. He was in demand for several films after that and also continued to do stage plays in the early 1930s. Rathbone made seven films in 1930 alone! He also made three films in England during 1933. The Rathbones and their seven dogs finally moved to Hollywood in 1935. The Hollywood Years The Rathbones gained a reputation for throwing lavish (and expensive!) parties, which the biggest stars in Hollywood attended. At one such party Errol Flynn got drunk, followed a young lady home and passed out on her living room sofa. Later that night, the woman's father brought the unconscious Flynn back to the Rathbone's house and dumped him on the lawn. "The next morning, Basil and Ouida were having breakfast on the patio, when the gardener turned on the sprinklers.

Who should spring up from the grass, but a hung-over Errol Flynn. The Rathbones sat--mouths agape--as Errol bid them a cheery 'Good morning,' then departed for home." (quoted in Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films, page 21) Rathbone made many great films during the 1930s. In most of them he played the role of the villain, including one of his best-known roles: Sir Guy of Gisbourne ( The Adventures of Robin Hood ). The swashbuckling adventure roles were the most fun for Rathbone, and he trained to become an accomplished swordsman. "I enjoyed swordsmanship more than anything because it was beautiful. I thought it was a wonderful exercise, a great sport. But I would not put it under the category of sport; I would put it under the category of the arts. I think it's tremendously skillful and very beautiful. . . . The only actor I actually fought with on the screen was Flynn, and that's the only time I was really scared.

I wasn't scared because he was careless but because he didn't know how to protect himself" (quoted in Castle of Frankenstein, 1969 issue, pages 31-32). During his film career, Rathbone was twice nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor. One was for the role of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and the other was for the role of the king in If I Were King. Both times the award went to Walter Brennan instead of to Rathbone. In the late 1930s, Rathbone's son Rodion joined the family in Hollywood and lived with them for a year. Rodion even appeared in two films with his father: He played the role of Russell (a young pilot) in The Dawn Patrol and Lord DeVere in The Tower of London . When Britain entered World War II, Rodion returned to England to serve in the military. In 1939 the Rathbones adopted a baby girl named Cynthia. By all accounts, Rathbone was a very devoted father and spent a lot of time with his daughter. When Cynthia was older she even accompanied her father on his summer stock tours.

Rodion, Ouida, and Basil (England, 1937) Ouida, Cynthia, and Basil (1939) The War Years In 1939 England declared war on Germany. Rathbone wished to serve his country, but due to his age (47), the war office in London turned him down. So, Basil spent the war years serving as President of the Los Angeles chapter of British War Relief and also the War Chest Executive Committee. He also founded the RAF Benevolent Fund and helped organize the United Nations War Relief. Rathbone entertained troops in California, visited army hospitals, and volunteered his help in the Hollywood Canteen. 1939 was also the year that Basil Rathbone made his first Sherlock Holmes film: The Hound of the Baskervilles . After making the first two Holmes films, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce began doing Sherlock Holmes stories on radio. They continued playing Holmes and Watson on radio and in films for seven years. After so many years, however, Rathbone grew tired of playing Sherlock Holmes and was bored with the character. Rathbone states in his autobiography (p.

181-182) that he yearned to create new characters rather than endlessly repeat a character he had already created and developed. Rathbone was also annoyed with the character of Holmes: "His perpetual seeming assumption of infallibility; his interminable success; (could he not fail just once and prove himself a human being like the rest of us!) . . ." (In and Out of Character, p. 182). It's just as well I never met Rathbone. We would have argued about Sherlock Holmes. Although Sherlock Holmes triumphed in the end of the films, he did misread clues and walk into traps. He nearly died at the hands of Moriarty several times, and was rescued by Watson! Finally, Rathbone also stated that he felt the Sherlock Holmes stories were dated and old-fashioned. (Old-fashioned? The stories are still enjoyed by millions of people, young and old.) Goodbye, Hollywood (Back to New York!) In 1946 Rathbone's film and radio contracts expired. Although he was very successful in films, Basil longed to return to his first love -- the theatre. So he refused to renew his contracts, and he and Ouida moved back to New York.

At first Rathbone had some difficulty getting parts because of his identification with Sherlock Holmes. In 1947 Rathbone was offered the role of Dr. Sloper in The Heiress, a role that he found fascinating. The play was a great success on and off Broadway and Rathbone received a Tony award for his performance. In 1949 The Heiress was made into a film with Montgomery Clift and Olivia DeHavilland. Rathbone had hoped to repeat the role of Dr. Sloper in the film and was crushed when the part went to Ralph Richardson. In 1951 Rathbone felt ready to play Sherlock Holmes again and asked Ouida to write a play. Using elements from several of Conan Doyle's stories, she wrote a play and received the approval of Conan Doyle's son Adrian. The play opened in 1953. Unfortunately, it received mediocre reviews and closed after only three performances. The Heiress was Rathbone's last major success. He continued to appear in plays on and off Broadway throughout the 1950s. He also did television plays and made recordings (record albums).

Rathbone traveled back to Hollywood to make five films during the 1950s. Rathbone also toured the country doing a one-man show called "An Evening With Basil Rathbone." In these appearances, Rathbone talked to the audiences about his experiences and gave dramatic readings. The Last Years Basil Rathbone made ten films during the 1960s, some of which he was not proud of, and appeared in only for the money. Basil's wife Ouida spent his money as fast as he made it, so he was never able to stop working. He continued to live in New York, but kept himself busy traveling to many cities giving lectures and doing his one-man show. The late Dr. Richard Lesh, founder and Commandant of the Maiwand Jezails (a Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars), wrote an article describing Basil Rathbone's visit to the Wayne State College Campus in 1965. It's an interesting story, well worth reading. Rathbone enjoyed visiting college campuses because the audiences were not "highbrow." In 1962 Rathbone wrote his autobiography In and Out of Character.

When the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films were shown on television in the 1960s, Rathbone became known to the younger generation and his popularity increased. Rathbone also continued to record albums in the 1960s, and he appeared often on television and on the radio show "Monitor" (NBC). In April 1963, he gave a dramatic reading at the White House. July 21, 1967, at age 75, Basil Rathbone passed away in his den, apparently from a heart attack. He is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. (Read about a visit to Ferncliff here .) In 1969, at the all-too-young age of 30, Cynthia (Basil's and Ouida's daughter) died from an illness. Ouida died in 1974 at age 88. Rodion Rathbone passed away in 1996 and is survived by three children: Heloise, Richard Rodion and Dounia. Knighthood?

At one time Wikipedia carried the information that Basil Rathbone was knighted in 1949 as a knight bachelor, and then in 1961 he was elevated to KBE. Wikipedia listed no source for this information, and it has now been removed. But the knighthood information has spread all over the Internet, so people are wondering: Was he or wasn't he? My research has uncovered no evidence that Rathbone was ever knighted. If Rathbone had been knighted, Notice would have appeared in the London Gazette. I have found no such notice. Rathbone's name would be listed in Burke's Peerage, a published guide to the royal and titled families of the United Kingdom. His name is not in the 1963 edition. Rathbone would have mentioned it in his autobiography, In and out of Character. He made no mention of being knighted. The logical conclusion is that Rathbone was never knighted. The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor confirms that Basil Rathbone was neither a Knight Bachelor nor a KBE. Visit these Biography-related pages: A Visit to Ferncliff (where Basil is interred) Main Sources: Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films, by Michael B.

Druxman (Hardcover: South Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes, 1975) Paperback edition: BearManor Media, 2011. Mr. Druxman's book is well-researched and well-written--a "must have" for every Basil Rathbone fan. The book traces the fascinating life of the actor and provides detailed descriptions of all of Rathbone's films, including cast, credits, critics' reviews and production notes. Out-of-print for more than thirty-five years, Michael Druxman�s book is once again available for purchase. This new reprint edition mirrors the original 1975 biography/filmography, including its more than 250 rare photographs, and also contains a new Introduction by the author. Buy it at Amazon.com .

Free Basil Rathbone biography and latest music, latest album, top tracks | SONG365 Country:United Kingdom Genres: Biogphiy: Basil Rathbone, MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African–born British actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and of suave villains in such swashbuckler films as The Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood, and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Basil Rathbone Tracks Netflix Movies Starring Basil Rathbone - NetflixMovies.com Netflix Movies Search Netflix Movies Starring Basil Rathbone Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised.

Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer born in Liverpool. From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School, where he was more interested in sports--especially fencing, at which he excelled--than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting. Read more on iMDB Basil Rathbone - Filmbug Basil Rathbone Basil Rathbone Basil Rathbone (June 13, 1892 - July 21, 1967) was an English actor. He was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg, South Africa, a son of Edgar Philip Rathbone and Anna Barbara George. His younger sister and brother were Beatrice Rathbone and John Rathbone. During the 1920s, Rathbone appeared in Shakespearean roles on the British stage.

He was in a few silent movies, and played detective Philo Vance in the 1929 movie The Bishop Murder Case. Rathbone became famous for playing suave villains in many swashbucklers of the 1930s, including David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), Captain Blood (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Mark of Zorro (1940). He was most notable for his starring roles in fifteen Sherlock Holmes movies. To many fans, Basil Rathbone was born to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous London detective. He also starred as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson in an old-time radio mystery series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1943-1946), and did numerous other radio broadcasts. Rathbone was married to actress Marion Foreman (married 1914-divorced 1926) and writer Ouida Bergere (married 1927-his death 1967).

He and Foreman had one son, Rodion Rathbone, and he and Bergere had one adopted daughter, Cynthia Rathbone. He was admired for his athletic cinema swordsmanship, particularly as Sir Guy of Guisborne in the long fight scene in Robin Hood. Other noteworthy sword fights appear in The Mark of Zorro and The Court Jester (1955). The latter duplicates a scene in the former where Rathbone slices a candle in two and leaves it burning. Basil Rathbone earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and another nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938). It was in 1939 that Rathbone first starred as Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Unfortunately, the many sequels typecast him and he was unable to break out of the stereotype, except in certain spoofs of his earlier swashbuckling villains in such movies as Casanova's Big Night (1954) and The Court Jester (1956).

Rathbone also acted on Broadway numerous times. In 1948, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play for his performance of Dr. Austin Sloper in the original production of The Heiress. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he continued to appear in several anthology programs on television He died of a heart attack at his home in New York City. He is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York. Basil Rathbone has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for motion pictures at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard; one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard; and one for television at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Note: This profile was written in or before 2004. Basil Rathbone Facts Basil Rathbone • Biography & Facts Basil Rathbone Basil Rathbone Philip St. John Basil Rathbone, MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor.

He rose to prominence in the UK as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers and, occasionally, horror films.He frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield (1935) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His most famous role, however, was heroic — that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. His later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. He received a Tony Award in 1948 as Best Actor in a Play. Personal facts

Question: In which country was actor Basil Rathbone born?
Answer: South Africa